Rating: 
Summary: Mislabelled
Review: The exam guide seems to think that Windows NT based NOS's have the ability to track or log 'trends.' This is incorrect and unfortunately, they incorporate this fallicy into their end of chapter questions. An administrator or a well written script should be able to look at the log and contrasted with baselining, would be the only way to tell. They have an annoying habit of not including key phrases like CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY or PICK THREE or etc, when they desire more than one answer in the chapter reviews. This wouldn't be bad if they were cosistent about not putting this into the questions. I'd be on more guard. As it is, some questions it seems that they DID remember to put that wording - which makes me constantly yo-yoing between thinking 'Are they looking for more or not?' This is something detrimental. Maybe the Exam Cram 2 wasn't as indepth, but at least their exam questions were thorough. Terminology not clearly defined, such as page 121 referencing something called an SA. Since they are referencing the ISAKMP just a few sentences later, it's inferred by me that they are just talking about a Security Association. Again, this isn't defined, it's assumed. I could be wrong, just like they are for not being thorough. Overall, after reviewing this, i think that this book provides too much information. If it wants to be a textbook, fine, call yourself a textbook. But this isn't an exam prep or exam review.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best sources of information
Review: I've always liked Syngress books and found them refreshingly thorough. The "Security+ Study Guide" is no exception. If you are looking for a book that will give you a very thorough education in computer security you can't go wrong with this book. Some of the areas covered include access control, authentication, active attacks, passive attacks, malicious code attacks, remote access security, protocols and their vulnerabilities, e-mail security, PGP, hoaxes, wireless vulnerabilities, site problems, web server lockdown, instant messaging, Java, Active-X, CGI, FTP, LDAP, device based security, firewalls, routers, modems, IDS, servers, coax cable, fiber optics, removable media, topologies, tunneling, system hardening, updates, configuration issues, application hardening, data repositories, cryptography, public key certificates and management, forensics, risk identification and assessment, security policies, privilege management, documentation, and disaster recovery. This is a very small sampling of the areas covered in this massive book of over 700 pages. One of the things that I generally have not liked about other study guides is that they tend to give the student the information to pass the exam without them really learning anything. Like the other Syngress books that I have reviewed, this one provides a thorough and useful education along with the information necessary to pass the certification exam. If you want to pass the certification exam and get a valuable education in the process this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing Wrong Here!
Review: Make sure you have Network+ covered and some idea of disater recovery, backups etc. Read this cover to cover three times and the exam is yours.
Rating:
Summary: The Only book to use to pass Security+
Review: This was the third and final book I bought and used to pass the Security+ exam. I failed the exam the first time after studying Mike Meyers book, it was way to easy. The second book I purchased was the Exam Cram2 book, even easier than Mike Meyers book and I could tell that by the time I had read seven chapters. I simply put the book down and asked around. This is the book that was recommended to me as the ONLY book to use to pass the Security+ exam. It doesn not candy coat how hard the exam is. It tells you in detail what you need to know to pass the exam. It will tell you you don't need to know this to pass the exam...BUT you should know this for the real world. Pay attention to the exam alerts and warnings. Trust me they will give you a great idea of what to expect. In my opinion the DVD that comes with this book is worthless, its the book you want!! I can't say enough about this exam. While it could use a little editing in my opinion. Some of the paragraphs where a little long winded, it does cover unlike other books in extream detail what you need to know. Non of the other 2 books I read covered what this book takes forgranted as the "normal" information you need to know! CompTIA's Security+ exam is not a easy exam like the A+ and Net+ which in my opinion are used to grade first year IT persons. This exam expects you to know in detail and to be able to figure out situations and how to fix them. This book provides the book knowledge and also points you in the direction you need to go to figure out the situational questions. This book is definately worth the read IF you want to pass!! This is the only book I recommend as one that will provide you with the tools to pass the exam at all! Erik; A+, Net+, Security+, soon to be MCSA.
Rating: 
Summary: pretty good book
Review: I read 5-6 books and passed this in my 1st go. Syngress was the first one that publich a book for Security+ and they have deifnitely done a good job. Their wireless section is too much for the actual exam but there's nothing to lose to learn more. Generally i will recommend this to anyone going for the exam.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Decent overview of I.T. Security
Review: Overall a pretty good study guide. However, since this is a "Study Guide AND DVD Training System" the potential purchaser should be made aware that the DVD is pretty useless. Suffering from a horrible case of Powerpoint presentation syndrome, the presenter actually appears to be reading the slides. The audio and video quality is pretty awful as well. It was a tough 2 hours to get through it. The 30 minute DVD that came with "Hacking Exposed" (while mostly just a commercial for Foundstone) was much better. Having said that, the study is pretty good and complete. There are some typos here and there and some of the sample questions are simply wrong. But if you read the material you should be able to spot the incorrect questions pretty easily. So, the book gets 4 stars, but losses a star for the worthless DVD that comes with it. A DVD training system it is not.
Rating:
Summary: Questionable...
Review: The DVD apparently means well, but it skims over things (everything), and in some cases (the PGP installation tutorial for example - for an outdated version of PGP) it's just not all there. It would have been better to have someone who is a good public speaker give the DVD presentation (for the sake of all that's good, spend a little money on the production value!) And not just put one of the writers on camera in a dimly lit room with two or three other people from (the publishing company?) asking a question or two at the end of each chapter. The explanations of some of the acronyms are not as clear as they should be. They could be better organized. Depending on just this book would worry me.
Rating:
Summary: Failed using this book
Review: After reviewing after taking exam, there were several questions I got wrong because this book had errors. I am very dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: wow--great book, great DVD
Review: An excellent book with a great DVD. Coverage is even, no inaccuracies as far as I can tell. I've paid well over $ for DVD study tools. This is better and has more. Well written by security experts. Matches all exam objectives. Lots of great questions.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, covers the materal, but could use revisions
Review: I always find it interesting that the people who failed give it a poor rating. I think the subject material was covered very well in this book, especially being the first to the market. However, it would probably be a good idea to release a second/revised edition soon because of some typos and material that was missed. That said, reading this book WILL get you through the exam IF you put the time into studying.
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